Count Towards Re:Connect
by iceyly
Summary: Drabble Collection, 3D Countdown - 25: It is vital that they continue to work, that they continue to research the Darkness despite their ruler's fears, surely they will be able to pull back before they reach a point they are not meant to disturb.
1. 30:  All Things Different

Well, since waiting for the japanese release of Dream Drop Distance kind of makes me stir-crazy and I keep thinking that I should/want to write more fanfiction, I decided to make my own countdown and borrow one of the 30-claims tablets for prompts. The one I settled on is from the LJ community **30_nights** and can be found in my writing community on dreamwidth (iceboundary), though while I intent to use the prompts, I'm not keeping the night theme for every drabble.

While I'm doing my best to release one drabble per day over on my dreamwidth they will probably take a little longer to make it to here. Most of them will be set somewhere between Birth by Sleep and Re:Coded, though it's likely that some will also contain spoilers for the Dream Drop Distance pre-release material. I will put up Spoiler Warnings if/when that's the case though!

Pairings-wise there probably won't be much aside of slight hints on Destiny OT3, because that's just the way I roll.

Anyways, this is the first time I've written anything from Sora's point of view, so I'm kind of unsure abour everything, and maybe really like to have some feedback?

Enjoy?

**Category:** Kingdom Hearts

**Characters:** Sora, Riku, Kairi, hints of Destiny OT3

**Genre:** Gen, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort

**Rating:** G

**Warnings:** ...Nothing really in particular? Though a tissue warning might be at order I suppose. |D;

**Prompt:** 30 - It hurt to see you cry.

**Summary:** Drabble - Their whole dynamic has changed, but the pieces still fit together and as long as they do, things are just fine as they are.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**- All Things Different -**

It's strange to fall into old-yet-new patterns upon returning - because they are home now and everything looks unchanged and yet totally different. The people around him are different too - Wakka is even taller than Riku, both him and Tidus are so seriously involved with never ending practice of their ballgame that they hardly find time to hang out and Selphie too has gotten all strange - she's still as forward as before, but more girly and while her aim still is mean, she hardly lashes out with her jump rope anymore.

He supposes he is different too - nobody travels for two years and stays totally the same right? - and he can see the way his mother looks at him from time to time, hesitant, as if she does not quite recognize him.

Riku and Kairi are different too - more adult-ish, that's for sure - Kairi is even more bossy now and Riku has grown far, far more quiet and their whole dynamic has changed, but the pieces still fit together and as long as they do, things are just fine as they are.

Different doesn't mean bad after all, because before he could have never even imagined teaming up with Kairi to tackle Riku to the ground and tickle him until he's dissolved with laughter, to pin him down and drag him into a cuddle so close that they can't even tell where one of them starts and the other ends and keep him there until his quiet protests have totally stopped.

Because sometimes Riku is stubborn about the things he deserves - or rather about the things he thinks he doesn't - and sometimes Sora just needs to cling to his best friends - and absolutely make sure that both of them, all three of them, are really, really here - that no one has been kidnapped or taken or is running around all alone thinking that he's just got to do everything by himself.

The first time they do this, Riku suddenly starts laughing once they've pinned him into the sand - not the "Oh that's funny"- kind of laughter and (thankfully) not the smirk-creepy kind either, but in a strange, sad, not-actually-funny-way that makes his heart ache and he exchanges glances with Kairi, who looks just as worried, just as uncertain.

When they try to pull away, to figure out what's wrong - maybe they've crossed a line they couldn't see, maybe it's just one of these things that Riku keeps hidden (there are way, way, way too much of those, but one day they'll get him to spill, so that it stops eating him up from inside) - he pulls them back and clings clings clings, like he's never before and laughter changes into something like sobs and suddenly all three of them are crying and clinging like idiots and even forever seems too soon to let go.

Later, Riku calls them stupid, even though his eyes are still all puffed and red and he really doesn't look much better than either of them. But there is also something strangely vulnerable in that look in his eyes, something like he doesn't quite believe that it's actually happening, and Sora feels his chest tighten and _hurts_ at the thought of all the doubts Riku must have felt the entire time he's spent alone, especially since he hadn't thought he should really return with them when they had finally, finally found him.

It hurts to see his best friend cry, to think about all the things and people that hurt him and to consider that maybe he's hurt him too, even though he'd never never wanted to.

He makes a promise that night, when he just short of falling asleep curled close to his best best bestest friends in all worlds in the sands of their play island, with only each others' voices and the sounds of the waves as lullaby: next time (because there'll probably definitely be one - they are all Keyblade Wielders after all and even though things ought to be better now that the Organization is gone, the Heartless are still out there), next time he's going to protect them both.

Next time, it won't be just Riku having his back like he's had in the year he was sleeping and after, but them having each other's back and really, they've already promised, haven't they?

From now on, they'll all go together.

_- Fin -_


	2. 29: Upon Betrayal

Hello, hello, welcome to drabble #2... which is actually more drabble sized this time. XD;

No spoilers for anything, but hnng, reasons why I love-hate exploring KHI!Riku's thoughts, because it makes my heart hurt and yet I just want to face palm so hard at him.

Idek.

Enjoy?

**Category:** Kingdom Hearts

**Characters:** Riku, Kairi, mentions of Sora

**Genre:** Gen, Angst, Friendship(?)

**Rating:** PG to be safe?

**Warnings:** None.

**Prompt:** 29 - I will never hurt you.

**Summary:** Drabble - She _will_ wake up, he's going to make sure of that, no matter what.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**- Upon Betrayal -**

She's so still, lying there as if just asleep, as if she wasn't missing a part of herself that had never be meant to be separated, as if she'd wake up any minute and laugh at him for standing there just watching and tease tease tease him like she always does. She won't though, he knows, because right now she's just a shell, empty and soulless - almost like a doll.

The thought alone makes him angry - she shouldn't be like this in first place, should be moving vibrant and alive, and maybe she would again, if he'd been able to bring that puppet here, If Sora had decided to come and actually work with him here, then maybe maybe she'd have her heart back already.

But Sora has stopped caring now that he's got all his _new_ friends to replace them with, has been playing around like a fool while thinking himself some kind of hero, swinging around that Keyblade that has never been promised to him.

'At least he still has a conscience', he had said, like Riku doesn't, like he's the one in the wrong here, like he isn't doing this to help their- no _his_ friend.

Sora has abandoned them, so much is clear now, he's made it clear when he'd refused to listen, to even ever consider working together to help Kairi.

It _hurts_ like a slap to the face and now the bitterness he feels as consequence of that betrayal is curling tightly in his stomach and he doesn't look forward to having to explain it to Kairi when she wakes up - _when_, not if, because she _will_ wake up, he's going to make sure of that, no matter what.

He'll never hurt her like that, never never ever, and even though he has to leave her side again soon, has to leave her on the ship, under Hook's watchful(?) eyes (even though everything in him twists at that thought, he doesn't like the idea of leaving her here with only strangers for company), because Maleficent will soon call on him, and he can't risk displeasing her right now, not when she's the only one who knows how to get Kairi's Heart back.

So he'll do as he's told for now, just until he's figured out a way to return her Heart and then they'll leave, and Maleficent and Hook and the rest of them can do whatever with that Heart of all Worlds for all he cares.

"Soon." he whispers, promises, as he strokes back her bangs as goodbye and returns to where that vessel back to Hollow Bastion is waiting.

He has work to do.

_- Fin -_


	3. 28: To Where The Heart Rests

Drabble sized things! Looks I'm getting better and better at them. |D

Though I suppose it's also connected to this drabble being about Ventus and Sora... and I don't have written much about either of them yet, so... |D;

I'm getting the feeling that I might end up writing more often about characters, whose thoughts I'm not quite as familiar with as with Riku/Aqua/Terra, and it makes me look forward to the rest of this challenge - I'm pretty determind to pull this off. (gym)

Wish me luck and enjoy?

**Category:** Kingdom Hearts  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Ventus, Sora  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Gen, Friendship  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> Spoiler for Birth by Sleep(?), maybe kind of slight spoilers for Re:Coded(?)  
><strong>Prompt:<strong> 28 - I feel safe with you by my side.  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Drabble - Even within the deepest dark, there is always a Light.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**- To Where The Heart Rests -**

It's so cold around him, freezing, sticky, clinging Darkness that surrounds him, that holds him, that has spun and spun and spun him around until he doesn't know whether he's looking up or down or left or right, until he is just trapped in what seems to be an endless night, without any stars to watch, without anyone to keep him company.

All that's left for him is just to drift along, to try to find a glint of light or a rumble or just any sign that it isn't just him caught here all alone, that there is somebody - anybody - looking for him, trying to show him a way back home.

There is no one out here though, and he is becoming so so so tired of drifting, of searching and _yearning_ and not quite knowing for what. Of thinking that _they_ should be somewhere near, that he should be able to reach them and yet never finding a hint of a thread that might lead him back to them.

_("An unbreakable connection." he hears Aqua whisper, and somehow that makes the loneliness even worse.)_

He has no idea for how long he has been like this when finally a strangely familiar voice breaks through the endlessness, a whisper that calls for him and he can't help but cling to it like to a life line, to search and search and follow it until suddenly all around him is white instead of black - such wonderful, wonderful familiar light and he thinks "Oh..." because now that he has touched it again, he recognizes it.

It has healed him once already, connected to him when his heart had just been about to fall apart and given him a second chance.

And now it's helping him again, just when he once again is in need, without ever asking for anything in return. If he could he would cry, he knows, because the light around him is so so warm and gentle and yes, this definitely seems like a good place to take a nap, maybe.

So he lets the light wrap around him, lets himself become a part of it, because maybe, if he stays here for just a little while... maybe then, the loneliness won't be so bad to bear anymore.

_- Fin -_


	4. 27: Those Left To Linger

Oh god, idek. This prompt was kinda hard - mostly because ffffhhh what is 'soulless' in Kingdom Hearts? orz

I'm still not sure if this totally fulfills the prompt, but I'm okay with it.

Enjoy?

**Category:** Kingdom Hearts  
><strong>Characters:<strong> The Lingering Will  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Gen  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> Spoilers for Birth by Sleep  
><strong>Prompt:<strong> 27 - I'm soulless without you.  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Drabble - He listens to the whispers around him, listens and learns as he continues to stand guard, and the only thing he remembers for sure, is his enemy's name.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**- Those Left To Linger -**

On the plains of the Graveyard, time means nothing.

It stretches to the endless where an hour seemed a month, where a year seemed a minute.

The guardian of this world has long lost any feeling for it. Time has stopped mattering to him.

The Graveyard is an abandoned world; there is nothing left here but howling winds that try to eat at his armor and the half mad whispers of the thousand abandoned blades, whose owners once waged war, so very, very long ago.

But even half mad whispers have stories to tell and so the guardian listens as he waits - his existence one of muddled thoughts and memories left behind and carrying on, when his heart and body had fallen and as he listens to the whispers around him, listens and learns as he continues to stand guard, and still the only thing he remembers for sure, is his enemy's name.

He will recognize him when he appears before him; and he _will_one day, the guardian is sure of that.

Sometimes in his clearest moments he recalls the faces of those he holds dear - though he never forgets their names either, a rumbling whisper echoing through the graveyard as he calls for them, tries to cling to these connections, these memories until they are lost in the haze again.

Even as he waits, all he truly knows is rage.

One day his enemy will return.

And maybe then... after that...

One day, he will... definitely...

_- Fin -_


	5. 26: Frozen Moments

Please, someone stop me from writing bittersweet Riku things at 3am in the future. orz Because gah, it really breaks my heart. ._.

I partly blame all of this on rp-ing too much Days!Riku recently. That kid's lack of self-worth just isn't healthy. /sob

Also, fic title is possibly subject of change, if I ever come up with a better one. orz

Enjoy.

**Category:** Kingdom Hearts  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Riku, Sora, Kairi  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Gen, Friendship  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> None  
><strong>Prompt:<strong> 26 - Frozen moment at the first sight.  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Drabble - Home is where the Heart is, and his has only ever belonged with them.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**- Frozen Moments -**

In hindsight, it seems stupid to be surprised - to expect Naminé to call him by the name he has chosen to borrow rather than the one that once belonged only to him and yet he freezes when she reveals him to Kairi, when neither of them give him a chance to run and hide away, and stay in and guide from the shadows like he had intended to.

He has long resigned to his fate - he needs the power of Darkness, because him using them means that Sora won't have to, and he had been well aware of the price paid: the moment he had slipped off the edge and allowed himself to fall, he'd given up his right to return to his home, to ever be anything more than a drifting shadow, rejected by Light and Dark alike.

But instead of doing all the things he had _meant_ to do - to take a step back, to disappear before she can see - he lets Kairi come close, lets her reach up and remove the hood, her eyes widening just slightly when she recognizes who's form he has taken, but before he can shy away, she presses her palm against his cheek and maybe for just a moment he might have been himself again.

Later he'd realize that he's been lost from that moment on - there is just no way that he can leave now and let her search for Sora unprotected - not when Saïx is so intent to use her against their friend - so he just follows her charge, almost maybe slightly amused as he watches her storm ahead - no longer content to just wait on the sidelines, but willing and fierce as she throws herself into battle despite her lack of experience.

It hardly surprises him that a heart that determined has called a Keyblade into being; he can sense it's power mingling into her scent, and he suspects that the only reason she can't call it by herself and he has to reach for it instead, is that maybe she can't quite hear it's call just yet, maybe she doesn't know what to listen for, but he also knows that it's just a matter of time until she does.

Fighting back to back with her is strange and new and yet somehow a little thrilling, even though he keeps an eye on her swings to be sure he won't get hit himself (he'd never live it down, if he did, right?). It's almost, almost normal and maybe for a second he forgets that he isn't himself, for a second he dares to hope.

The illusion breaks though, when Sora reminds him of the face he is wearing, when the ache in his heart tightens and he remembers just why he had never wanted either of them to see. So he turns away - it's time for him to leave, because Sora and Kairi are together again, just like they should be. He isn't needed anymore, not here, because Sora can protect her and there are still quite a few members of the Organization that need to be taken care of. Better he left now and took his share of that burden. Right?

But this time it's Kairi, who calls him for who he is, who won't accept his denials, who clings to his coat and says "Don't go!" and when has he ever been able to refuse her?

Sora's eyes are wide with disbelieve, wary but willing to try as Kairi calls him over and places their hands over each other and the moment she does, it's like something shatters and the world around freezes, leaving only the three of them, finally, finally together, and for the first time since fighting Roxas, Riku really, truly _is_ himself.

It's the first time they see each other again in almost two years, that they are all three back in one place - that no one of them is sleeping or possessed or lost anything that should never be taken - and it feels like the moment is stretching into forever.

For Riku, it feels like coming home.

And maybe, he thinks when Sora falls to his knees, when he clings to his hand and doesn't let go, maybe he's allowed to after all.

_- Fin -_


	6. 25: Pathways To Downfall

Welcome to drabble #6... which is actually more a One Shot! |D;

This one was definitely the most difficult, but also the most thrilling to write, because I have never written any of the Original Six and getting into their mindset is... interesting... to say at least. It was also the most complicated because ahahaha what is continuity within this series? orz

And yet the most difficult thing to figure out was yet again the title. Idek, I'm pretty (unsure) about it. /sob

Enjoy?

**Category:** Kingdom Hearts  
><strong>Characters:<strong> The Original Six and Ansem, the Wise  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Gen  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> Hints of spoilers for basically everything, including Dream Drop Distance pre-release material  
><strong>Prompt:<strong> 25 - Release of the evils.  
><strong>Summary:<strong> One Shot - It is vital that they continue to work, that they continue to research the Darkness despite their ruler's fears, surely they will be able to pull back before they reach a point they are not meant to disturb.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**- Pathways To Downfall -**

They had started small.

Small deviances here and then, an experiment that is run just a tiny bit longer than what Master Ansem had agreed to, maybe an extra testrun or two - nothing that brought harm to anyone; their subject _is_ one of their own and willing, the driving force behind all of it in fact - Xehanort is hungry for knowledge and so very interested in the studies of the Heart and the Darkness from the moment they first tell him about it and intent to regain what memories he had lost.

It seems notable at first just how much interest Braig (his face scarred now and an eye missing, and he has yet to spill a word about just how that had happened, but Ansem isn't pressing and Braig _does_ have the privilege of being the eldest of them all, so nobody dares to ask more than once) shows in their new fellow apprentice and it would maybe make them wary, if Braig hadn't just always been like that - enigmatic, meddling, mischievous and scheming for his own entertainment - and Xehanort seemed just fine with handling his poking and prodding so why bother to interfere when they all are quite busy with their own daily tasks apart of their research.

Only much, much later they find out about the arrival of a stranger - a king from a different world - that causes Ansem to stop their experiments, to forbid any further research into the topics of Light and Darkness and the Heart and while all of them are frustrated (so close, maybe if they had managed to run their experiment just a little longer...), but none of them thinks of defiance until Xehanort approaches them - separately of course, just whispers in the hallways so not to be overheard.

_(And no one notices the satisfied smirk that flickers over Braig's face as he watches the result of his 'poking' and 'prodding' and really, all it had been was just careful cultivation as he attempts to wake the memories of a Master of Darkness and bring them all right back on track; just like it's always been meant.)_

They start working behind Master Ansem's back - secret meetings right in deepest darkest part of the castle: This is where they had started and will continue their experiments, it is vital that they continue to work, that they continue to research the Darkness despite their ruler's fears, surely they will be able to pull back before they reach a point they are not meant to disturb, but even though none of them is afraid of it, they all agree that the Darkness posses an unknown danger and quantifying it is absolutely necessary in order to keep it from breaching into their home.

It is then that they first discover the Door - or rather Xehanort does, eyes widening and glancing over just slightly as he stares at the wall and slowly, surely, a Door reveals itself to them all - as if to reassure them that their research is starting to amount to something.

Little do they know, that their world has already been connected.

But there is only so much they can do between the six of them, only so very little, even with the discovery of the door, because for all his generosity, for all the trust that Ansem has placed into them, he _is_ called "the Wise" for a reason - it would be foolish to think that he isn't starting to grow suspicious of them. Still it all goes well, and at first nobody notices that the crowd of homeless that lives in the further districts of the Garden, away from where their ruler's eyes would see, is thinning out, picked up one by one by the guards of the castle and promised a new, a better life.

But even nobodies leave an imprint on the world and eventually Ansem grows certain enough to call them all to his chamber - maybe he had found one of the reports Xehanort had crafted and signed in his name, maybe they just hadn't been careful enough.

Regardless of which, a solution must be found, they agree; their Master is close and he will not content with just stern words and a slap to the wrist, should he find out just how far they are planning to take this, just how far they have taken this already, because locked into the chamber behind the laboratory are shadows crawling and scratching against the door; the outcome of their work, the result of a Heart lost to Darkness.

_("Heartless", Xehanort had decided to name them, after placing one of their subjects with them and watching how they had torn it apart, devoured it really, and created one of their own.)_

They don't quite know how, but their research has granted Xehanort the ability to craft portals towards the Realm of Nothingness (or at least so he says), but why question it when it proves to be such an apt answer to their problem of how to proceed in regards of their (former) Master, because once lost beyond the space of the worlds it should prove quite hard to find one's way back and that would indeed make another rather interesting experiment, would it not?

It's so much easier to continue now that Ansem is gone, with Xehanort directing all proceedings within Radiant Garden, safely cloaked by the name that is truly no use to its former owner anymore. It doesn't take long for them to truly get things going, now that they do not have to worry about watchful eyes with the intent to stop them any longer, they spin theories and tests around the Heartless and the Door they have discovered and continue their experiments with far, far less scruple now, even as the Garden's citizens start to grow wary of the on-goings within the castle, and still they do not lack subjects to work with.

There are always teenagers eager and driven by curiosity as they try to sneak into the castle yet again, try being the keyword, and stumbling across their experiments is truly almost as good as volunteering to take part, is it not?

It is soon after that, that they discover how to craft artificial Heartless and Even's eyes gleam in anticipation as he claims that particular direction of research his own, because surely, if they can create Heartless out of nothing, surely and actual Heart can't take much more, can it?

It all comes back to the Door though, and the Heart of their world that Xehanort has determined must lie behind it, because they are confined by the Garden's borders and there is so, so much more to discover, the conclusion of all their experiments cannot be found within the borders of the prison that Radiant Garden has become - ultimately their world is just too small.

The Door is firmly sealed though, and none of their tools, not even the Heartless can change that; they remain locked within this world. Time is starting to become of essence, because they have let the Heartless roam the places beyond the castle, have started to lose control little by little, even if none of them is not quite willing to admit that quite just yet, not until the first of their own numbers succumbs.

From there on they fall one by one, twitching on the floor as they fight to retain their selves - they all fall until only two of them are left - and Braig is left slightly pale as he watches the results of their work, because this is not quite what he had had in mind and it surely had not been the old man's plan either, Xehanort frowning passively, eyes glancing over once again and only Braig witnesses as he calls for the one Key they have been looking for and unseals the Door, and instead of leading them towards the freedom they'd imagined, he unleashes a nexus of Darkness that devours their Hearts... and ultimately their world.

They had started small. It still had ended in destruction.

_- Fin -_


End file.
